tomcat

Hi, Apache Tomcat is said to be a Reference Implementation. but what exactly IS a 'Reference Implementation' ?? How is it different from WebSpere and WebLogic?? And why do we need so many of these servers?? Thanx in advance..... ------------------

A reference implementation is exactly what it say. It is a complete and correct implementation of the Servlet and JSP spec. The way that this differs from Websphere/Weblogic depends on the version of tomcat that you are using. Version 4 (beta) currently implements the newest public draft of the servlet 2.3 and jsp 1.2 spec, most version of weblogic/websphere do not. Tomcat is normally more current with regards to the spec than any other container. The reason for having loads of containers is CHOICE. Would you be happy having only one option of servlet container to deploy to? That would go against the way of Java. Rgds Sam